Oaktopia Is Back, and It's Way Bigger

Last year, first-time Denton festival Oaktopia delivered on content but not so much on attendance. As Aaron Ortega reported in November, the largest crowd was 200 or so, for the mighty Del the Funky Homosapien. You might suppose a festival that drew such a modest crowd last time would scale back a little bit, especially given the preponderance of music in Denton at any given time.

However, perhaps sensing a gap in the absence of 35 Denton from 2014, Oaktopia is rolling the dice on a phenomenal and sprawling line-up, over two days rather than last year's one, and being headlined by Aesop Rock. Throw in Immortal Technique and Baths along with an outsize collection of some of north Texas' finest musical talent across all genres, and you've got yourself something approaching 35 Denton in ambition.

What's more is that tickets for the whole weekend are $30. That is a bargain approaching stratospheric proportions. Single-day tickets are $25, so unless you are hugely desperate to save $5 on the whole deal, you can book the weekend of September 19th and 20th off with confidence. The whole line-up is below, in case you like reading extraordinarily long lists, but in short the non-headliner highlights include local darlings Bukkake Moms and New Science Projects in rock, usual local biggies Sam Lao, -topic, and Blue, The Misfit in hip-hop, as well as a comedy stage headlined by Paul Varghese. Insane.